Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema

Marvel Visionaries

by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway

The Incredible Hulk, the devastating Dragon Man, the epic end of the gods themselves... none of it was too much for Big John One of comicdom's most acclaimed creators takes center stage in this genre-spanning gathering of greats Nick Fury vs. Hydra Thor vs. the Silver Surfer The origins of Wolverine and Dracula The twilight of the Masters of Evil Includes crime, horror, romance and western work from the pre-Marvel era Plus: rare Silver Surfer stories unseen for decades Collects Crime Fighters #4; Western Outlaws & Sheriffs #60; Strange Tales #22 & #150; Tales To Astonish #85-87; Avengers #41-42, #75-76, #277 & Annual #2; Silver Surfer #4; My Love #2; Fantastic Four #111-112; Thor #200; Dracula Lives #3; Marvel Spotlight #30; Epic Illustrated #1; Wolverine #10 and Marvel Shadows & Light #3

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 2007

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Julian]

Buscema is maybe my favorite comic artist. There are so many brilliant ones, how can I choose? But if you exclude Kirby because he's on a different level from the rest, I can't put anyone before Buscema (sorry Gene Colan and many many more.)

I'm of two minds about this collection. I wouldn't say it has his very best work (which in my opionion is in the 60s and 80s and has Tom Palmer in common...) but it does have a terrific survey of different stuff that he did, some of which I was 100% unfamiliar with. For instance, 40s and 50s comics, a romance comic from the 60s, some rare Epic and prestige/painted type stuff at the end of his career.
Do I love these as much as the stuff I grew up reading (in reprints) at the height of his Avengers run, or Namor or Conan or his later Avengers run? No. But still fascinating and illuminating.

Final thoughts:

1. Decent little intro from Roy "the Boy" Thomas.
2. Fun extras like pics of original art and even a couple pages of layout/storyboards! Very interesting to see.
3. NO CONAN. I imagine because Marvel no longer has the license, right? But still.... there ought to be a whole Buscema book just on Conan and similar titles, since I believe that was his favorite stuff and I think he's the master.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Visionaries volumes are not so much best-of collections as they are an overview or sampling of the creator's work from its earliest days on. In this case, it was interesting to see "Big John"'s technique evolve from its relatively humble beginnings into the dynamic style that most comic readers are probably familiar with. In addition to stories featuring the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Thor, Hulk, Silver Surfer and other Marvel Universe luminaries, there are a couple early crime stories and a romance, as well as a slightly mature Dracula piece. Some of them are classics while others just aren't so good, and frankly the combined extreme melodrama of Stan Lee and Roy Thomas made my head hurt. Still, a decent study for comic art historians.

[Bob Wolniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big John was one of the most prolific comic artists for Mighty Marvel in the late 60's through 80's. He drew at least one story of virtually every title during that time. He is most famous for Silver Surfer and of course Conan the Barbarian of which he drew around 200 stories, many in collaboration with writer Roy Thomas. This volume has a little of everything he is known for except for Conan though (my guess is that Marvel did not have the rights to Robert E. Howard's character anymore when this volume was published), otherwise I'd give this a five star rating. Any collection of Giovanni Buscema's work without at least including something from his prodigious run illustrating that uncivilized Cimmerian is incomplete, but this nearly 400 page full color treatment is hard to beat otherwise.

[Bira Dantas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Many early Buscema's comics! A lot of inofs about his artistic life.